INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Slim Shadey has been the dominant turf horse at 1 1/4 miles on turf in California for the past 18 months.
At that distance, Slim Shadey won the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes in January 2012 and again in February of this year, the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship last October, and was second to Acclamation in the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Handicap in June 2012.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Retired Hall of Fame jockeys Jerry Bailey and Angel Cordero Jr. were contemporaries of Gary Stevens and believe the fellow Hall of Famer is riding better now than when he did just before his retirement in 2005.
Stevens, 50, returned to the saddle in January, and three weeks ago he rode Oxbow to victory in the Preakness Stakes. Stevens will be aboard Oxbow again in Saturday’s 145th running of the Belmont Stakes, a race he has won three times.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Soft Whisper is not yet a stakes winner, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t seen the big time.
A third-level allowance victory by Soft Whisper came before a huge crowd on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs and strongly suggested that the 4-year-old filly is ready to be a major player at a higher level.
That opportunity comes Saturday at Churchill Downs, where Soft Whisper will start from the outside post in a well-matched field of six fillies and mares in the Grade 3, $100,000 Mint Julep Handicap.
With a horse named Pyro in the field, and another starter a daughter of Hallowed Dreams, the $822,603 Ruidoso Derby on Saturday seems like it’s a Thoroughbred race. But the 400-yard dash is the first major Quarter Horse stakes of the Ruidoso Downs season in New Mexico, and both Pyro and A Dream to Remember will start as top choices in a field of 10.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – The more trainer Robert Barbara studied the past performance lines for the $60,000 Fort Monmouth, the more enthusiastic he became about running Ballistic Sue in the 5 1/2 furlong turf stakes for fillies and mares on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
Barbara will also review the options at Belmont Park, his home base. But it would be hard to beat the opportunity on the Jersey Shore.
The $75,000 Ponche Handicap serves as the traditional prep for Calder’s premier sprint race, the Grade 2 Smile. But never has the field for the Ponche been as strong or as deep as it will be Saturday, when two-time Grade 1 winner Jackson Bend takes on the Grade 3-placed Bahamian Squall, Grade 1-tested Trickmeister and five others in the feature event on the 12-race Summit of Speed Preview program.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Woody Stephens appears loaded with early speed, there doesn’t appear to be anyone quicker than Let Em Shine, who has traveled cross-country for his graded stakes debut.
The question is whether Let Em Shine can carry that speed seven furlongs on a new – and possibly wet – track while facing the toughest competition he will meet to date.
The opening-night card at Virginia’s Colonial Downs, which features three races over the jumps, has attracted 108 horses for nine turf races, including 12 horses for the featured David L. Ferguson Memorial Hurdle Stakes, designated a Grade 3 by the National Steeplechase Association.
The David L. Ferguson has a scheduled post of 6:56 p.m. Eastern as the third race on the card, 20 minutes after the post time for the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown. Colonial officials said that the Belmont will be broadcast on the track’s Jumbotron.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Another Triple Crown season will come to an end Saturday with the running of the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes, and so too will another season of Daily Racing Form’s Triple Crown clocker’s reports.
Many of the Belmont starters have become very familiar figures out on the racetrack each morning, having competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown. Among them is Orb, who pretty much touted his Kentucky Derby victory with the way he trained up to the race both in Florida and following his arrival at Churchill Downs.
AUBURN, Wash. – The future looked bright for Carrabelle Harbor after she won her first two starts, both stakes races, back in 2010. Yet when she starts Saturday in the feature race at Emerald Downs, the 5-year-old Carrabelle Harbor will be trying to get back to the winner’s circle for the first time in nearly two years. Her lengthy losing streak aside, she is likely to start as the favorite in a field of five fillies and mares racing 6 1/2 furlongs in a first-level allowance with a $32,000 optional claiming price. First post for the nine-race card is 2 p.m. Pacific.
